Advanta shares list at 4 per cent premium
Mumbai: United Phosphorus' subsidiary, Advanta India's shares, listed on the bourses at a slight premium to the issue price.

On the NSE, the share listed at about 4 per cent premium at Rs665 compared with the issue price of Rs640 per share. On the BSE, the share listed at Rs640.
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US pension fund hikes investment in Indian markets
New Delhi: The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension fund in the US, has found India to be one of the best performers among all the emerging markets in its investment policy report for 2007, approved by its board yesterday.

Currently, CalPERS has investments of about $1 billion in over 55 Indian stocks, which represents a whopping over 260 per cent return since the purchase of these stocks.

CalPERS may also expand its exposure to the Indian stock market, as it has given impressive returns ever since the world's second largest pension fund with assets worth about 240 billion dollars began investing here in 2004.

For 2007, CalPERS board has decided it might invest in twenty emerging markets including Argentina, Brazil, India, Israel, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey.

The decision was based on a report from its consultant Wilshire Associates, which reviewed country and financial market factors such as political stability, transparency and labour practices of 27 emerging markets, CalPERS said in a statement.

CalPERS, however, would not be permitted public equity investments in China, Colombia, Egypt, Pakistan, Russia, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka.

The pension fund, which provides retirement and health benefits to about 1.5 million state and local public employees and their families, had about 5.2 billion dollars invested in emerging markets as of December 31, 2006.
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Hotel Leelaventure to raise funds through $100 million FCCB issue
Mumbai: Hotel Leelaventure has secured funds of $100 million (Rs430 crore) through a foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) issuance and has the option to increase it by another $10 million, the company said, in a notice to the stock exchanges.

The FCCBs are expected to be listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading and have a maturity of 5 years and 1 day, are convertible at a price of Rs90 per share, (as adjusted from time to time) which is at a premium of 49.50 per cent over the closing price of Rs60.20 on the BSE on April 18.

The FCCBs bonds are zero coupon bonds with a yield to maturity of 7.80 per cent, calculated on a semi — annual basis, at the end of 5 years and 1 day, if not converted into shares during the period.
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JP Morgan AMC introduces India Equity Fund
Mumbai: JP Morgan Asset Management India has launched its maiden domestic fund, JP Morgan India Equity Fund. The open-ended, equity growth scheme aims to generate income and long-term capital growth from a diversified portfolio of predominantly equity and equity-related securities, including equity derivatives. The new fund offer (NFO) opens on April 19 and closes on May 18. The fund will invest 65-100 per cent of its corpus in equity and equity-related instruments and 0-35 per cent in debt and money market instruments and will be benchmarked against the BSE-200 index.

The minimum initial application for the fund is Rs5,000 and minimum additional and SIP application is Rs1,000.
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Essel Group raises $105 million from private placements
Mumbai: Essel Group has raised Rs4.45 billion to fund the expansion of group companies Dish TV India and Wire and Wireless (India).

The chairman Essel Group Subhash Chandra has placed 38.4 million shares, or 9 per cent, of the newly-listed direct-to-home broadcaster Dish TV with institutional investors, according to a statement from the company.

Chandra said the objective of the fund raising was to provide funds to both Dish TV and WWIL for their expansion plans.

Dish TV, India's top private DTH operator, listed at Rs120 on Wednesday and closed the day at Rs102.55, after it was spun off from top listed media firm Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. Dish TV has nearly 2 million subscribers and expects to add a further 8 million by 2010, with the average revenue-per-user growing at 10-12 per cent a year, Chandra said.
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